Genesis 7:8

Summary

Genesis 7:8 continues the list of creatures entering the ark, specifying clean animals, animals that are not clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground. The verse is built entirely on the preposition min ("of", H4480A), repeated four times to introduce each category.

Key words

• behemah ("animal[s]", H0929) — feminine singular noun, used twice (once for clean, once for unclean animals), each time governed by min to mean "some of the animals."
• tehorah ("clean", H2889) — feminine singular adjective agreeing with behemah, marking ritual/dietary purity status.
• 'eiNenah (from 'eiNe + nah, H0369/H9044) — a construct noun functioning as a negative existential ("there is not") plus a pronominal suffix ("her"), together meaning "she is not" — the standard Hebrew way to negate a nominal clause without a verb "to be."
• romes ("creeping", H7430) — Qal participle, masculine singular, describing ongoing action ("the one that creeps"), used substantively for "that which creeps."
• 'adamah ("ground", H0127G) — feminine singular noun with definite article, the surface on which the creeping creatures move.

What the text says

The verse has no main verb of its own; it is a chain of prepositional phrases dependent on the verb that precedes it in the passage (entering the ark). Each clause begins with min ("of"), followed by a definite noun: ha-behemah ha-tehorah ("the clean animal[s]"), ha-behemah 'asher 'einenah tehorah ("the animal[s] that is/are not clean"), ha-'of ("the birds"), and finally kol 'asher romes 'al ha-'adamah ("all that creeps on the ground").

The negation of purity is expressed not with a finite negative verb but through 'eiNenah, a construct form of the existential particle 'eiN with a third-person feminine singular suffix, literally "there-is-not-she," idiomatically "she is not [clean]." This construction allows Hebrew to negate a predicate adjective without using a copula.

The final clause uses the active participle romes ("creeping/moving") rather than a finite verb, giving a durative, descriptive sense — "that which is [habitually] creeping" — rather than a single completed action. The noun kol ("all", H3605) generalizes this last category to include every creature moving along the 'adamah ("ground", H0127G), the same term used elsewhere in Genesis for arable soil.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) presents the categories in a different order — birds first, then clean and unclean livestock, then birds again, then creeping things — producing a partial repetition of "birds" not present in the Hebrew sequence. The Vulgate ("De animantibus quoque mundis et immundis, et de volucribus, et ex omni quod movetur super terram") follows the Hebrew order (animals clean/unclean, birds, creeping things) and renders romes with "movetur" ("moves"), a broader term than the Hebrew's more specific "creeping."